Friday, 30 September 2011

Pay Rs 900 to get HS answersheets

Any student who wants to get a copy of his HS Board examination answerscript under the Right to Information Act has to shell out Rs 900. The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, however, has put the cost to Rs 200. This after the Supreme Court had allowed the disclosure of answerscripts of any examination conducted by any agency in India, under the RTI Act.

The argument given by both the boards for charging the fee is that the entire process of providing answerscripts is an “arduous task that involves expenses on the part of the board and considerable involvement of manpower”. “We have to collect the answerscripts from where it is stored. Then we have to get its photocopy, and then give it to candidate,” said Mukhtinath Chattopadhyay, president, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Chattopadhyay, however, added that the fees could be modified if the state government wants it to be changed.